Cambridge University Launches New Centre to Study AI and the Future of Intelligence 3 December 2015

Cambridge University launches new centre to study AI and the future of intelligence 3 December 2015

Human-level intelligence is familiar in biological The Centre is a response to the Leverhulme 'hardware'—it happens inside our skulls. Trust's call for "bold, disruptive thinking, capable of Technology and science are now converging on a creating a step-change in our understanding". The possible future where similar intelligence can be Trust awarded the grant to Cambridge for a created in computers. proposal developed with the Executive Director of the University's Centre for the Study of Existential While it is hard to predict when this will happen, Risk (CSER), Dr Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh. CSER some researchers suggest that human-level AI will investigates emerging risks to humanity's future be created within this century. Freed of biological including climate change, disease, warfare and constraints, such machines might become much technological revolutions. more intelligent than humans. What would this mean for us? Stuart Russell, a world-leading AI Dr Ó hÉigeartaigh said: "The Centre is intended to researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, build on CSER's pioneering work on the risks and collaborator on the project, suggests that this posed by high-level AI and place those concerns in would be "the biggest event in human history". a broader context, looking at themes such as Professor Stephen Hawking agrees, saying that different kinds of intelligence, responsible "when it eventually does occur, it's likely to be development of technology and issues surrounding either the best or worst thing ever to happen to autonomous weapons and drones." humanity, so there's huge value in getting it right." The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Now, thanks to an unprecedented £10 million grant Intelligence spans institutions, as well as from the Leverhulme Trust, the University of disciplines. It is a collaboration led by the University Cambridge is to establish a new interdisciplinary of Cambridge with links to the Oxford Martin School research centre, the Leverhulme Centre for the at the University of Oxford, Imperial College Future of Intelligence, to explore the opportunities London, and the University of California, Berkeley. and challenges of this potentially epoch-making It is supported by Cambridge's Centre for Research technological development, both short and long in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities term. (CRASSH). As Professor Price put it, "a proposal this ambitious, combining some of the best minds The Centre brings together computer scientists, across four universities and many disciplines, could philosophers, social scientists and others to not have been achieved without CRASSH's vision examine the technical, practical and philosophical and expertise." questions artificial intelligence raises for humanity in the coming century. Zoubin Ghahramani, Deputy Director, Professor of Information Engineering and a Fellow of St John's Huw Price, the Bertrand Russell Professor of College, Cambridge, said: "The field of machine Philosophy at Cambridge and Director of the learning continues to advance at a tremendous Centre, said: "Machine intelligence will be one of pace, and machines can now achieve near-human the defining themes of our century, and the abilities at many cognitive tasks—from recognising challenges of ensuring that we make good use of images to translating between languages and its opportunities are ones we all face together. At driving cars. We need to understand where this is present, however, we have barely begun to all leading, and ensure that research in machine consider its ramifications, good or bad". intelligence continues to benefit humanity. The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence will

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bring together researchers from a number of disciplines, from philosophers to social scientists, cognitive scientists and computer scientists, to help guide the future of this technology and study its implications."

The Centre aims to lead the global conversation about the opportunities and challenges to humanity that lie ahead in the future of AI. Professor Price said: "With far-sighted alumni such as Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, and Margaret Boden, Cambridge has an enviable record of leadership in this field, and I am delighted that it will be home to the new Leverhulme Centre."

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